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Environmental Law

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DC Environmental Law Externship (LAW 895)

The DC Environmental Externship has two components: (1) a one-week classroom seminar conducted at Pace; and (2) seven weeks of supervised field work with a mentor attorney in a federal environmental agency, congressional office, public interest environmental organization or other appropriate institution located in the Washington, DC area. The program is supervised by full-time faculty members at Pace and an adjunct professor in Washington, DC. Students maintain work logs and journals, participate in a weekly seminar conducted by the Washington faculty member, and produce a substantial paper. This externship is designed to allow students to gain practical experience in the environmental legal arena with special emphasis on the type of legal work conducted in DC, but in a controlled learning situation, which enriches the students' more traditional academic instruction. The externship work is supervised primarily by the placement attorneys, but with support from Pace faculty. The students may engage in a variety of work, including analyzing legislative and regulatory issues, drafting advice memoranda, assisting with briefs and other legal activities. Some weekly seminars are devoted to discussion of individual assignments, for mutual consultation. Some fieldwork may be library research or other tasks related to the individual placements. Placements may include the US Environmental Protection Agency, the US Departments of Justice, Interior, Energy and Agriculture; the Council on Environmental Quality, committees and subcommittees of Congress with environmental and land use responsibilities; and environmental public interest organizations such as the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Environmental Defense Fund, and the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund, the National Wildlife Federation and the National Audubon Society. Trade associations and private law firms offering pro bono placements may also participate. Permission of the professor, based upon application and usually interview, is required.